Harvard vs. Harvard

Drugs! Greed! Kinky sex!— how this match made in heaven turned into the breakup from hell.

by John Sedgwick
November/December 2007, Page 56

Daniel Kim and Jennifer Rubell in happier times. Out on the town in Manhattan, summer 2006.

It was another modern twist on the traditional marriage: In a gender role reversal, the woman had become the provider, the man the stay-at-home dad. Rubell was hooked on her high-powered career, and Kim was happy to take a break from his. But the modern woman didn’t really want such a modern man. Rubell resented Kim’s taking time off, even if it was to be with their child. She was disgusted that Kim had “stopped working entirely” and “loafed around the house with an air of supreme entitlement, expecting me to pay for his lifestyle.” If he went back to McKinsey, she pointed out, he could pull down $250,000 a year. “I would think that any committed father would want to [do that].” For his part, Kim mocked his ex’s preoccupation with “making money,” putting the phrase in quotation marks as if it were as silly as the “breakfast dates” on which she regularly took Stevie to Balthazar, the downtown bistro where Manhattan power brokers often breakfast, rather than taking Stevie to the park, as he did.

Supreme Court Judge Harold Beeler delivered his ruling on March 28 of this year: Kim would receive equal custody of Stevie. It was back to the midweek handoff, and it was after this decision that an infuriated Rubell slammed the door on Kim when he came to pick up their daughter. Meantime, Stevie had begun to manifest signs of stress, repeatedly shrugging her right shoulder in a nervous tic.

Rubell’s lawyers attacked the fifty-fifty schedule as too much back and forth for Stevie, citing psychiatrists who attested to the necessity of a single, dominant home—Rubell’s. In June, the five-member appellate court reversed the lower court’s decision and, in a preliminary ruling, reinstalled Rubell as the primary parent. (At press time, the full ruling had not been rendered.) For now, at least, Kim’s visitation rights have been reduced to a few hours a week and a weekend overnight.

Kim apparently plans to press on, returning the case to the jurisdiction of Judge Beeler for a new trial. Rubell will surely fight him tooth and nail. “When you’ve got two high-powered people like Jennifer and Daniel,” says friend Michael Friedman, “there’s a lot of energy there.” Which means, for some time to come, no more dramatic screenplays from Kim and a lot less entertaining from Rubell. Except, perhaps, real-life entertaining.

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Related Content:

• 
  After Hours with...Jennifer Rubell
• 
  Poking Facebook
• 
  The Scandals List
• 
  A Million Little Writers
• 
  Al Franken
• 
  Eliot Spitzer
• 
  Eliot Spitzer
• 
  Norman Mailer
• 
  Under the Knife

Keywords:

• Jennifer Rubell,
• Scandal

Mentioned:

• 
  Jennifer Rubell : College Class of 1993
• 
  Daniel Kim : College Class of 1997
• 
  Yo-Yo Ma : College Class of 1976
• 
  J. Michael Friedman : College Class of 1997
• 
  David Samuels : College Class of 1989
• 
  Harold Beeler : HLS Class of 1974